Weird Science (article)

[Guest]

Poultrybots? I don't quite understand this (the experiments), anyone? - Perdita

In Kingdom of Cockroaches, Leaders Are Made, Not Born - JOHN SCHWARTZ, NYT, 12.7.04

It might seem counterintuitive - or, let's face it, silly - for scientists to create an artificial cockroach. Nature has, after all, given us so many of them, and considerable energies of humankind have been focused on exterminating them. But an international team of scientists has done just that.

The purpose of the matchbox-size robo-roach is to study "collective intelligence," said José Halloy, senior research scientist at the Free University of Brussels, one of the institutions collaborating on the project. Roaches, ants, bees and many other creatures are gregarious and share a kind of mob intellect, he said.

The researchers have found a chemical blend that smells roachish enough for the impostors to trick real roaches into believing they are part of the group, and even to modify group behavior by getting the roaches to follow them from dark to light places.

As tempting as it might be to imagine a pied piper leading roaches into glue traps, Dr. Halloy said their goal was not roach control. "Everybody is enthusiastic that we are going to build a program to get rid of the cockroaches," he said. "That is not the present stage or the aim at the moment."

When it comes to killing roaches, "classical methods are better." Ultimately, he said, the technologies could be used to make smarter computers and robots. "We want machines to perform independently without human intervention," Dr. Halloy said.

The researchers are studying collective behavior among many species. Working closely with Jean-Louis Deneubourg of the Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems at the university, the researchers say they hope to influence "collective choice" and eventually "control animal behavior through the use of artificial systems" like herding sheep without the menace of a sheepdog or persuading flocks of grackles to leave parks.

The researchers say they are also making progress with chickens, which exhibit a destructive "panic behavior" that might be calmed with poultrybots. "That's the dream," Dr. Halloy said. "But of course, we are far away from that. What we are trying to do is prove the concept."

"The idea of using microrobots to influence the collective behavior of animals, and cockroaches in particular, is an old idea of Jean Louis's, and we had some really hilarious brainstorming sessions a few years ago talking about it," said another scientist in the field, Dr. Eric Bonabeau.

Dr. Bonabeau is chairman of Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Mass., and Paris that is exploring swarm technology "for military purposes." That could make the roaches sound almost cuddly.

 

[patrick1]

I think this is a really interesting area. But I suppose part of our problem in understanding group behaviour lies in the myth of the individual: that we tend to build our speculations and theories about how animals act from the individual ant upwards. We have a hard time conceptualising that a group might have an identity of its own. Don't we?

I had a period earlier this year of finding myself just watching flocks of birds. Can they be said to 'decide' whether to take off? And on the direction they take? Why then do a few dissidents drop away? Are there always 'leaders' (as the headline of the piece implies)? Or is this us imposing our discourse on what we observe?



patrick

 

[TheEarl]

This is fascinating and a field that I'd quite like to get into at university. At my uni, they're experimenting with getting robots to exhibit animal behaviour and have cultivated a fox and rabbits sydrome by giving robots a few simple rules of how to live. Foxes feed (literally by draining energy) from rabbits and will chase a rabbit when 'hungry.' The rabbits are programmed to preserve themselves. Even from basic rules, truly complex character traits show up. The rabbits flee at the first sight of a fox, scattering away in different directions. The foxes have since learned to either sneak up on the rabbits, or to work together, one fox flushing a rabbit into the jaws of another. Incredible stuff.

Your example sounds just as thrilling - creating something which can fool some of the most delicate biosensors in nature.

Now to get back to my coursework, so that I will actually have a chance to continue on my course.

The Earl

 

[Lisa Denton]

Poultrybots? I don't quite understand this (the experiments), anyone? - Perdita

In Kingdom of Cockroaches, Leaders Are Made, Not Born - JOHN SCHWARTZ, NYT, 12.7.04

It might seem counterintuitive - or, let's face it, silly - for scientists to create an artificial cockroach. Nature has, after all, given us so many of them, and considerable energies of humankind have been focused on exterminating them. But an international team of scientists has done just that.

The purpose of the matchbox-size robo-roach is to study "collective intelligence," said José Halloy, senior research scientist at the Free University of Brussels, one of the institutions collaborating on the project. Roaches, ants, bees and many other creatures are gregarious and share a kind of mob intellect, he said.

The researchers have found a chemical blend that smells roachish enough for the impostors to trick real roaches into believing they are part of the group, and even to modify group behavior by getting the roaches to follow them from dark to light places.

As tempting as it might be to imagine a pied piper leading roaches into glue traps, Dr. Halloy said their goal was not roach control. "Everybody is enthusiastic that we are going to build a program to get rid of the cockroaches," he said. "That is not the present stage or the aim at the moment."

When it comes to killing roaches, "classical methods are better." Ultimately, he said, the technologies could be used to make smarter computers and robots. "We want machines to perform independently without human intervention," Dr. Halloy said.

The researchers are studying collective behavior among many species. Working closely with Jean-Louis Deneubourg of the Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems at the university, the researchers say they hope to influence "collective choice" and eventually "control animal behavior through the use of artificial systems" like herding sheep without the menace of a sheepdog or persuading flocks of grackles to leave parks.

The researchers say they are also making progress with chickens, which exhibit a destructive "panic behavior" that might be calmed with poultrybots. "That's the dream," Dr. Halloy said. "But of course, we are far away from that. What we are trying to do is prove the concept."

"The idea of using microrobots to influence the collective behavior of animals, and cockroaches in particular, is an old idea of Jean Louis's, and we had some really hilarious brainstorming sessions a few years ago talking about it," said another scientist in the field, Dr. Eric Bonabeau.

Dr. Bonabeau is chairman of Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Mass., and Paris that is exploring swarm technology "for military purposes." That could make the roaches sound almost cuddly.

Being an expert in the field of communicating lesbian spiders I am often asked to participate in these experiments for military purposes.

The idea was a good one, a group of special forces undercover robo-chickens could lead a small battalion of roaches deep behind enemy lines. Then get on top of tall buildings and lay eggs, then the robo-roach sargeants could order the roaches to take the eggs to the edge of the roof and drop them on the heads of the enemy. Two main problems arose during our months of plannings and high-level scientific meetings and field tests. The freakin (freakin isn't a scientific term but we often use it anyhow) chickens would often suffer serious injuries trying to fly onto the tops of the tall buildings, we hadn't thought about that. Then some idiot actually asked what military purpose would be gained by dropping a egg onto the enemies head, other than pissing them off, we hadn't thought about that either.

So we gave that up and is now pouring our billions of dollars of military research monies developing a left-handed hammer to hit the enemy in the head with. We are all really excited about this new project and we are having lots of high-level brain-storming sessions in brothels and bars. The initial tests all appear promising.

Oh, by the way, this is all top secret stuff so DON'T TELL NOBODY.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Schooling behavior has been a knotty problem in animal ethology, and it applies not only to fish but to migrating birds and animals that flock. There seems to be some critical number of individuals you need to form a school and the number varies from species to species, but once you hit that number there's a definite change in animal behavior, as if a switch has been thrown.

I guess the idea of the human mob is a manifestation of the same kind of phenomena. 'Schools' of humans don't act like individual humans gathered together in a group: there's a quantum difference. The mob has motivations and even means of communication that don't apply among individuals. What is this and how does it happen?

One of the most famous examples of schooling behavior is what happens with locusts. Normally they're just normal, law-abiding grasshoppers going about their business, but when they collect in large enough numbers they undergo actual changes in their appearance and behavior and turn into swarms of locusts. If you can reduce their numbers sufficiently, they turn back into grasshoppers.

Ants are another example. Ants seem to operate almost as if they're independent neurons in a brain, bringing information back to the nest and communicating through chemical signals. Individual ants have a limited ability to communicate with each other (like brain cells), but in large numbers they're capable of pretty sophisticated behavor, even decision-making. No one knows how this happens.

It looks like the reporter in that story wasn't sure just what the scientists were up to, but I imagine it had something to do with modeling schooling and group behaviors.

---dr.M.

 

[TheEarl]

I guess the idea of the human mob is a manifestation of the same kind of phenomena. 'Schools' of humans don't act like individual humans gathered together in a group: there's a quantum difference. The mob has motivations and even means of communication that don't apply among individuals. What is this and how does it happen?

Who starts a Swing-Low at Twickenham? (For the non-English substitute any sporting osng that's sung in a crowd for Swing-Low and your local 70,000 seater stadium for Twickenham) One person singing sounds silly. 70,000 is a majestic noise. But it has to start somewhere with one person. How? That's human pack behaviour in my book and one of the greatest experiences of my life so far.

The Earl

 

[Guest]

Patrick, Mab., and Earl: thank you, I get it more now; I really couldn't understand the concept from the article. Lisa hon, you're too deep for Mum.

Perdita

 

[R. Richard]

I have worked in robotics. An autonomous robot of the type discussed in the article is properly called a telefactoring device. However, let me use robot for simplicity.

It is not possible at the current time to build a robot that will mimic human behavior. However, cockroaches are less intelligent than humans (I have a couple of ex-bosses where this may not be true). Thus, it is apparently possible to build a cockroach robot to study the science of robotics.

The scientists who built the robot cockroach can study its interaction with real cockraoches and see where the robot is deficient. The knowledge gained will make it possible to build even better robot cockroaches. Eventually, the knowledge gained from building a robot cockroach will enable the building of higher animal robots. Eventually, science will be able to build a human robot. (I am the master! [Source anyone?])

Agreed, the building of a robot cockroach seems insane. However, there are good reason why they are doing this.

Now, if they need cockraoches to work with, I can lead them to places where I lived in my younger days and they can find LOTS of cockroaches and rats as well!